Train from Varanasi and bus to Nepal

(by Miller) Now, Annie and I have been ridiculously flexible in our schedule and we’ve had no problem switching things around (like doing Egypt completely backwards) to make like easier. We figured pushing our train time back a few hours from Varanasi to Gorakpur wouldn’t alter things too much. Well, turns out, the difference between the 1pm train and 5pm train was the difference in staying in a hotel and sleeping in a train station.

Gorakpur is a stop in India that most people pass through on the way to Nepal. We thought we’d get there around dusk, check-in and move on to Sonauli (the Nepali border town) the next day. WELL, as impressed as we’ve been with customer care and the Indian railway system, we had some beef when our train arrived at 11pm and we had no idea where to go. Now, we’ve all arrived somewhere after hours and had to made due, just praying this wasn’t THAT time that we’d get robbed (Cotonou at 10pm anyone?)
We decided to buck up and go check out the town, the hostel wasn’t supposed to be that far anyways.

The whole time we have been in India and now Nepal, people have been telling us “it’s the festival!” They weren’t messing around. In Varanasi especially, we saw tons of instant temples, complete with Christmas lights and paper maché gods. This is the big deal holiday when people go all out to see their families and really have a holiday. It takes place over three days and I’m pretty sure it’s to honor a wife of Shiva...at least that’s what I’ve been able to piece together from the zillions of stories friends here have blessed me with. Anyways, we walk out of the train station and there is a street fair going on, complete with blaring music, street food and carnival games. Looked like a pretty good time but we had packs on and were tired; besides, it was midnight and we had to catch our border bus at 5am.

Braved the crowd and eventually found the bus station we needed to be at in 5 hours and got a great glimpse of the nightlife. Crankiness set in as we realized there really wasn’t enough time to justify getting a hotel room but too much to sit staring at each other. Hmmmm, back to the “air cooled” passenger in transit room at the train station. The room looked like a refugee camp and we set up our site in between a family of 6 and the men’s bathroom door, choice digs. We pulled out the Lonely Planet bible to figure out our next move after the 5am bus and took turns watching the gear and “experiencing” the maxi-pad, dirty diaper graced bathroom. Piling our stuff behind us in the corner, we laid down one of our sheets and passed out for a few hours. Though not before Annie spotted her arch nemesis species, Rat-us Mobilus, peeking out of the men’s room door. Annie demanded I “defend her honor” and kill anything that comes near. I of course, promptly passed out. A few hours later, got up, greasy and bleary-eyed to find our way out of that hell-hole.

Made it there no problem and we even left 10 minutes early. Things could have been really bad at this point; instead of commiserating, we fell asleep again (feels like we’ve been in a constant state of coma at times) and woke up an hour before the border because the road got so bad it threw us off our seats, literally. I picked up my smaller bag (the one with airplane tickets and all the money to my name in it) when we got off and realized there was an enormous hole in the bottom. Oh dear god, Annie and I had mild strokes as I checked and by the grace of something holy, nothing had fallen out. There were perfect rat-shaped teeth marks, all around the foam padding. (Annie insert: Miller is way to blaze about this, it was disgusting to think I was two feet away from a feeding rat.) It suddenly made sense why I was covered with black thread when I woke up. Counted our blessings and moved on.

There were two other western travelers on the bus with us and when we got off we walked across the border together. Well, Annie and I walked across and they kind of, Sound of Music (complete with guitar) style, ran across, then re-simulated so they could video-tape it...

Robert and Lucy are two 18 year old English gap-year students who are just HAPPY to be alive. Everything was new and exciting and just so POSITIVE. Clearly, Annie and I had found kindred spirits. Good thing we ended up on the bus together, all 4 across the back seat with 2 poor Nepalese guys crammed between like wedges. This turned out to be a 9-hour ride. Around hairpin turns and between exclamations such as “Of COURSE I want to trek the Everest base camp. I mean, I’ve always been just so naturally fit,” and applying mascara; we all got acquainted.

At the next stop, Annie and I cracked open terribly expensive cans of beer and pounded potato chips. Pretty sure we forgot to say goodbye and headed into Pokhara once we arrived. Though, we were to run into them randomly on the strip and it was fine. They had roped some poor Israel kid into doing a 3-week trek and share a hotel home. Could someone please write a comic strip about THAT?!